The Leaky Oil Burner Air Vent
Posted on April 6, 2007 – 5:56 pm by admin
For about a year, I have been looking at the concrete part of our basement floor. I just sit there and look at it. No really, I have been looking at it because at times, there has been a little puddle of water and a wet area near the oil burner, or boiler, as some people call it. I always thought it was coming from somewhere in the wall along the length of the basement.
Well, last night, I just happen to be in the basement watching Laura do some laundry, and I happen to look at the air vent, or otherwise better described as the air bleeder valve on the boiler. I said, “Hmm, that looks wet to me.” I bent down to feel the bottom of the boiler and came back with a wet hand. “Sonofabitch,” I said to myself. I stopped looking at the aura of my beauty queen (Laura) and started focusing on the boiler.
I don’t know, I just always thought that these parts of a basement boiler should be rusty and ugly. Well, maybe not so much. They shouldn’t be.
I almost got a little tickling sensation in my belly at the thought of me having to fix something. Of course, such a project would require that I take a photo of the part, print a picture of it at work, bring it to Home Depot to compare to the parts there, buy a new one and then replace it. Oh what fun! While at Home Depot, I would also buy 2 more trees to erase my carbon footprint. I need 13 to do that.
Well, Home Depot didn’t have the exact one. The one that I had already installed was an Amtrol, Inc Air Vent, but I had to get a Honeywell 1/8″ Goldtop Air Vent. There were some pressure readings on the top of the new one, but I had no idea what they meant. I hoped the one I had in my hand was the correct one. Can you even imagine the stress?
I got home and installed the new part by simply unscrewing the old one and screwing on the new one. I turned the boiler back on and tested it out. It works good…a little hiss of air came out and then stopped. Good.
Seriously, who knew that someone could write a whole blog post on how to change an oil burner air vent? I guess it’s important because there were no other posts that I could find when I went to look up the topic. Now there is.
